Silpheed: Super Dogfighter TCW
                                                   by: Billy Lee
                                                       version 1
                                                       [email protected]
                                                       6/3/2000

*****************************************************************************
                               Disclaimer
This document (c)2001 Billy Lee.  This FAQ may not be used or distributed for
commercial use.  It may be distributed freely as long as it is not altered in
any way and I am given full credit for it.  Silpheed is (C) 1989 Sierra
On-line inc.
*****************************************************************************


TOC:
1: Version info, stuff like that
2: Controls and Game Info
3: The Silpheed
4: Weapons
5: Upgrades
6: Levels
7: Acknowledgements

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1: Version Info, stuff like that

Version 1: You're looking at it, probably the only version that will
           exist so I guess this part is kinda useless, huh?

  Why write an FAQ for a game this old?  Well, there are a few reasons why.
1: There aren't any complete FAQs for this game
2: I like the game
3: Silpheed 3 just came out for PS2 and it got me(and maybe a lot of other
   people too, probably not though) interested in the game again.
  I'd offer a place where you can download the game(I'd just upload it onto a
free site since it's less than a meg big), but that's kind of illegal.  Even
though it's been so long sicne the games release(hell, it was included
software with the Game Blaster from Creative back in 1989).  If it turns out
there's no problem with offering the game for free, then I'll upload it,
until then... owell...

  In case you were wondering, TCW stands for Totally Cool Walkthrough.  What?
Don't look at me like that, I was bored.

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2: Controls and Game Info

  Silpheed: Superdogfighter was made in 1988 by Game Arts and published in
the US in 1989 by Sierra On-Line, Inc.  It was included as packaged software
with the Creative Game Blaster sound card.  It has some great music in it.

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  The controls are simple, use the arrow keys or the keypad to move the ship
around and space to fire.

[Shift]-[X] will exit the game
[Enter] will skip the cut scenes
[Esc] will pause the game
[F1] toggles the background music on/off
[F2] toggles the sound effects
[F10] loads the highest level you've gotten to(i.e. if you get all the way up
  to level 20 and then start over at a later time, you will go back to level
  20)
[F9] will load the last level you played(i.e. if you played up to level 4 and
  quit, it will load level 4)

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3: The Silpheed

  You pilot the Super Dogfighter prototype, the Silpheed(hence, the name of
the game) and your mission is to blow up the battleship Gloire, that some bad
guy stole and wants to do bad things with.

  The game is an overhead shooter over different types of levels, each with
their own challenge.  The ship itself is what you have to look after(the game
has your standard overhead shooter autopilot, so don't you don't have to
worry about getting lost and having to ask for directions).

  When you kill something you get points.  Simple.  Kill stuff so you can get
points for better weapons to make life easier.

  When you get hit by something you lose a level of your shielding.  Try not
to let that one happen to many times.

  When you run out of shields, you start losing parts of your ship.  Then
next time you get hit you'll lose either one of your weapons(the game decides
randomly which one) or your main engine will get busted up slowing you down a
lot.  Also, If you lose a weapon, you lose your "F" power up, if you have it
at the time of pain.  If your main engine gets whacked, you lose the "S"
power up if you have it.  If you lose both, you're pretty much toast, but
just in case, if you get hit one more time, you're dead and you have to
restart the level.
  When you dock at a spaceport type thing, you get any broken pieces repaired
as well as getting some of your shields back.  You won't get any power ups
back, the only way to get those again is to find them again.

=============================================================================
3: Weapons

  When you finish a level you can change your current weapons.  Every 50,000
points you get you'll get another weapon added to your list to choose from.
You can also re-load the level to get different options, i.e. if you load a
level and only have the option for a V-Beam, you can re-load and get 2
Phalanx Beams.  At 400,000 you will have all of the weapons for both sides
available.

Weapons:

Foreward Beam - Your starting weapon and the only one that doesn't have a
  point requirement.  Actually packs a fairly nice punch.

Phalanx Beam - Shoots 5 foreward and 2 to the side.  Not as powerfull as it
  sounds at first, since the shots are weak individually.  If you can hit
  something with all the foreward shots, then it can be pretty powerful.

V-Beam - Shoots like a V.  It's pretty strong and the V is more like a wave,
  so it's quite effective in some areas.  It will replace your normal
  Foreward Beam when you get it.

Laser Cannon - Very powerful weapon, it can take just about any enemy down in
  one shot and bosses won't last very long at all against it.  It's only down
  side is it will reflect and come back at you when you fight certain
  enemies and it has a really limited range.

Auto-Aiming - It'll go after enemies on it's own and is actually pretty
  useful in some places.  It does have a few downsides though.  It will only
  lock onto enemies on the side of the ship that it is on(i.e. if the bad guy
  is on the right side of the ship and this is on the left, tough dice).  It
  locks on to the closest enemy to the ship, so if you are in an asteroid
  belt, it's really gonna go crazy firing at stuff, and if an enemy is moving
  fast it will have a hard time locking on to it at farther distances,
  causing you to miss quite a bit.

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4: Power Ups

  There are 3 basic power-ups for the ship with 2 extras.

W - Weapon Power Up - Makes you deal more damage.  Probably the first one
    you'll get and the most useful.  There are very few of these in the game,
    and they will stack, giving you a total of 3 Weapon Power Ups.

S - Speed Up - Speeds up ship movement on the screen.  This is really helpful
    in avoiding collisions/enemy fire.  You lose it Once your main engine is
    damaged.

F - Automatic Fire - Makes it so you don't have to keep pressing the fire
    button repeatedly in order to shoot fast.  You lose it when one of your
    weapons is damaged.

B - Set Barrier - The "Easter Egg" power up.  You can only get this on
    certain levels(only 2 I think), but it could quite possibly be the best
    add on to your ship.  It nullifies damage from enemy "bullets" so you
    won't take damage from them.  It won't defend against other attacks or
    collisions so you have to be careful.  If you get hit by anything other
    than a "bullet" you lose it, so you really have to be careful.

A - Asteroid Belt - 3 little asteroids circle around you and will kill weak
    enemies and bullets coming at you.  If they get hit by a big enemy,
    projectile, or a big asteroid, you lose an asteroid.

I - Invincible - It lasts about 30 seconds, and while it's active your ship
    will change colors.  You won't take any damage like this and any enemy
    that hits you is instantly killed, and as a bonus, you get extra points
    for killing them.

D - Destroy - kills anything and everything on the screen.  'Nuff said.

H - Shield Advance - Repairs one shield level or fixes your weapon/main
    engine if they're damaged.

R - All Repair - Will fix your engine/weapon and give you all your shields
    back.

N - Bonus Score - 5000 extra points, nothing more, nothing less.

=============================================================================
4: Levels

  Basically how the game is gonna play out.  There are 4 areas you will play,
each has a Tender after it that will repair shields and allow you to change
weapons.

Area Types:
Space Battle: Generally the longest level types, but they have a lot of power
  ups in them.  There is sometimes a mid-boss in these that you can fight for
  extra points or ignore.  The mid-boss is the same type of boss you would
  fight at the end of a level, only they don't use any of their main attacks.
Above Planet: Medium length, no power ups at all in these levels so be
  careful.  When the planet moves down on the screen(starts to go away)
  you're half-way through the level.
Fortress: Not for the claustrophobic.  If you run into a wall above you,
  you're automatically dead.  There are Robayan semi-bosses in these places,
  usually near the end that you can kill for extra points.  They're usually
  fairly short.
Asteroid Belt: Usually the hardest areas for the simple fact that there are
  big asteroids flying at you, but I like these areas the best.  They're a
  medium length and no half-bosses.  They have all the power ups except
  (A)Asteroid Belt(go figure...).
-------------------------------------
Tenders:

  Both tenders will let you change weapons with points, the only difference
is the Wolf tenders that only have 1 dock will only repair 3 levels of your
shields.  Vince Tenders are bigger and will repair all of your shield levels.
Vince Tenders will also supply you with the Speed Up and Automatic Fire
Power Ups.

-------------------------------------
Bosses:

Olleyus:
Weaponry Suggested: Any except Laser Cannon
Difficulty: Easy
Tips:
- The satellites rotating around it will reflect the Laser Cannon.
- When it comes down to the lower part of the screen, move to one of the
  corners and you should be fine.
- It fires small satellites at you that are easily killed.

-------------
Robayon:
Weaponry Suggested: Any
Type 1:
Difficulty: Easy
- All it does is fly around the screen and shoot little projectile things at
  you.  Basically included for extra points.

Type 2:
Difficulty: Easy
- Same as type 1, it will fire 2 parallel spikes at you, they are easy enough
  to avoid though.

Type 3:
Difficulty: Easy
- Same as type 1, it will fire a bunch of little rings that fly around the
  screen.  They can be destroyed and targeted by Auto-Aim.

Type 4:
Difficulty: Fairly Easy
- Same as type 2, it will fire 3 spikes instead of just 2.

Type 5:
Difficulty: Moderate
- Basically types 1 and 2 combined.

-------------
Gerdi:
Weaponry Suggested: Laser Cannon
Type 1:
Difficulty: Moderate
- It flies in the same basic pattern as all the other bosses.
- It's weapon is kind of like an exhaust port, it fires from the back of the
  ship and will stay there for a while.  If you get caught in it, you will be
  stuck for the time it's out and you'll lose a lot of your shields.

Type 2:
Difficulty: Fairly Easy
- Same as type one, except instead of using the exhaust attack, it will fire
  homing missiles at you.  They are easy enough to destroy if you get under
  them.

Type 3:
Difficulty: Fairly Easy
- Same as type 2 only instead of firing missiles at you it fires space ships.

-------------
Gleynius:
Weaponry Suggested: Laser Cannon, V-Beam, Auto-Aim
Type 1:
Difficulty: Moderately Hard
- It's got 2 little satellites that rotate around it and will fire Laser
  Cannons at you so use a lot of caution and try to stay out of it's direct
  line of fire.
- You can destroy the satellites first, or just go straight for the main
  ship.

Type 2:
Difficulty: Moderate
- Good news is it doesn't have the Laser Platforms rotating around it.
- Bad news is it fires Homing Mines at you.

-------------
Gloire:
Suggested Weaponry: Whatever it takes
Difficulty: Hard
- What'd you expect?  It's the final boss.
- Keep aiming for the middle of the ship.
- If you've got a Barrier, that will help a lot since the Lasers are easy
  enough to dodge, but the little dots are almost impossible to avoid given
  the amount of room you've got for maneuvering.

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Areas:

Movie: Intro
01:Space Battle  - Boss: Olleyus, Tender: Wolf, Special: Weapon Up
02:Space Battle  - Half boss: Robayon 1, Boss Robayon 2, Tender: Vince
                   Special: Asteroid Belt
03:Above Planet  - Boss: Olleyus, Tender: Wolf
04:Fortress      - Half Boss: Robayon 1, Boss Robayon 3, Tender: Wolf
05:Space Battle  - Boss: Robayon 4, Tender: Wolf, Special: Asteroid Belt
Movie: Silpheed fly by
06:Asteroid Belt - Boss: Robayon 5, Tender: Wolf
07:Fortress      - Half boss: Robayon 1, Boss: Gerdi 1, Tender: Vince
08:Above Planet  - Boss: Gerdi 2, Tender: Wolf
09:Space Battle  - Boss: Robayon 3, Tender: Wolf, Special: Barrier
10:Space Battle  - Half boss: Olleyus, Boss: Robayon 2, Robayon 3, Gleynius 1
                   Tender: Wolf
Movie: Silpheed landing
11:Asteroid Belt - Boss: Gerdi 1, Tender: Vince, Special: Weapon Up
12:Above Planet  - Boss: Gerdi 2, Tender: Wolf
13:Fortress      - Half bosses: Robayon 1(2), Boss: Gleynius 1, Tender: Wolf
14:Asteroid Belt - Boss: Robayon 5, Tender: Wolf, Special: Weapon Up
15:Space Battle  - Boss: Robayon 4, Tender: Vince, Special: Weapon Up
Movie: Jupiter
16:Above Planet  - Boss: Gleynius 2, Tender: Wolf
17:Asteroid Belt - Boss: Gerdi 3, Tender: Wolf, Special: Weapon Up, Barrier
18:Fortress      - Half bosses: Robayon 1(5), Boss: Gleynius 1, Tender: Wolf
19:Space Battle  - Bosses: Gerdi 1, Tender: Vince, Special: Weapon Up
20:Space Battle  - Bosses: Olleyus, Gleynius 2, Robayon 5, Gleynius 1,
                   Gerdi 1, Tender: None
21:Space Battle  - Boss: Gloire

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7. Acknowledgements

I know of the following sites that have this FAQ on them:
GameFAQs - www.gamefaqs.com
  If you find this FAQ on any site other than one I've listed, please let me
know.

Thanks to the following individuals/groups for their contributions:
Mike - My best friend.  awwwwwwwww............
Game Arts - Making such a great game
Sierra On-Line - translating and distributing the game in North America

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